40 classic Japanese VHS covers

One of the amusing aspects of Wayne Kinsey’s book Hammer Films: The Bray Studio Years is reading how the studio struggled with cuts forced by snooty British censors who saw Hammer’s films as prurient trash…while at the same time shooting extra gore and naughty bits for the movies’ Asian releases.

That leniency for horror’s twin pillars of boobs and bloods can be found in the collection of Japanese VHS covers below. All the images come from Jayson Kennedy’s blog Basement of Ghoulish Decadence, which is full of all manner of fantastic VHS cover art from around the globe many of them from Kennedy’s own collection. He’s also a worthy Twitter follow for champions of the analog.

And if you missed Deep Fried Movies’ countdown of the 100 best vhs horror covers back in October, you can check it out here.

(Correction) I have been informed that the Hellraiser and Branscan covers are actually South Korean. So make that “38 classic Japanese VHS covers….and two from South Korea.”